Brighton & Hove City Councillor Alison Thomson's Transphobic Tweets

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Find out what else you can do

Despite everything Brighton & Hove Labour say about being allies to the LGBTQIA+ community, one of their councillors posted and retweeted transphobic content to her twitter feed as recently as last September, but was still allowed to stand. This should be unacceptable anywhere, but in such a queer-friendly city like Brighton & Hove, it's particularly disappointing.

Screenshots of some of her tweets are below - they were still online until around the 11th September 2023, when she deleted her twitter account. Cllr Thomson has issued a half-hearted apology and Labour somehow expect that to be the end of it

Update: Labour aren't doing anything

Cllr Thomson has issued an apology for the tweets and Labour want us to think that's the end of the matter. Labour leader Bella Sankey said in a statement “I want to reassure the trans community that any expressions of anti-trans sentiment in any form will not be tolerated."

Given that Cllr Thomson remains a member of the Brighton & Hove Labour councillors, it's not clear what zero tolerance means for Labour. You can email or tweet Cllr Sankey to let her know what you think of this response.

Screenshot of a tweet retweeted by Cllr Alison Thomson which reads 'All #TERFs believe in is that women are female and that women deserve protections. That's it. #transwomenareMEN'

Retweeting something with the hashtag "#transwomenareMEN" shows that this is far beyond so-called 'reasonable concerns' and is just outright transphobia. She also seems to strongly identify with the label 'TERF', which is clear from the other tweets.

Screenshot of a quote tweet by Cllr Alison Thomson. Her comment reads 'Go @germainegreer88' and the quoted tweet is an image of Germaine Greer with the caption 'Just because you lop off your penis and then wear a dress doesn't make you a woman. I could ask my doctor to give me long ears and liver spots and then put on a brown coat but that won't turn me into a fucking cocker spaniel'

This is one of the only tweets that could be archived for evidence in case it gets deleted, as twitter doesn't provide a way to do this for simple retweets.

Screenshot of a tweet retweeted by Cllr Alison Thomson which has the caption '#TERFs' and an image that says 'THE THING IS WE ARE NOT DEBATING WHETHER TRANS PEOPLE DESERVE RIGHTS. WHAT WE ARE DEBATING IS WHETHER TRANS PEOPLE'S RIGHTS SHOULD OVERRIDE THE EXISTING, HARD WON. SEX-BASED RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS'
Screenshot of a tweet retweeted by Cllr Alison Thomson which promotes a thread of young so-called 'Gender Critical' women and uses the hashtags '#YoungGCWomenUnite' and '#TERFS'
Screenshot of a tweet retweeted by Cllr Alison Thomson which reads JKR also supports everyone having the same rights, regardless of their gender identity. India Willoughby demands a raft of privileges for males who believe that they are women. Privileges that would destroy female rights.

A tweet describing trans women as 'males who believe they are women', which is a very common transphobic trope

Screenshot of a tweet liked by Cllr Alison Thomson which reads If transwomen *truly* wanted to use women's spaces for safety...and not the women *in* those spaces for validation... they wouldn't reject a third space compromise.

This is a liked tweet rather than a retweet, advocating for third spaces for trans people rather than actual inclusion and suggesting that trans people wanting to use public toilets is inherently predatory

What can I do?

Having someone with these views in a position of power in our city is obviously unacceptable and also raises questions about the views of all other councillors. Nothing will happen unless enough people are making noise about it for it to become a problem, so here's a few things you can do:

Sign and share the petition

There's now petition calling for Cllr Thomson's resignation. Please sign it and share with as many people in the city as possible.

Email your councillors

Email your councillors to tell them how disappointed you are that one of their colleagues is posting hateful content like this, and ask them to take action and speak out about it.

You can use the council website to find out who your councillors are (just enter your postcode and click 'Go'). You can also email the leader of the council, Bella Sankey, and/or Labour's equalities lead, Leslie Pumm.

Share this online

Make sure as many people know about this as possible by posting about it on Twitter, Instagram, etc and sharing in local queer group chats (obviously with a trigger warning!) There's an instagram post you can easily share to your story.

You can also reply to other councillors' tweets with screenshots and a link to get it in other people's feeds (some of them have recently posted about going to different prides, which could be good to reply/quote tweet).

Contact news websites

You can contact The Argus, journalists from Brighton & Hove News, and The Seagull with a quote about why you think this is unacceptable - if enough people contact them it'll be hard to ignore this as a story.

Ask a question at a council meeting

If you're feeling brave, you could attend the next meeting of all councillors (currently scheduled for the 19th October) or the next equalities committee (13th October) and ask why they think it's acceptable for someone like this to represent our city. There are guidelines on how to ask a question at a council meeting - the main thing is to make sure that it's worded in a way so it couldn't be easily refused as being too rude/defamatory.

Brighton & Hove Labour were recently protested at Brighton Pride because of Keir Starmer's transphobic comments, but it seems like the local party clearly has problems too. Let them know that the people of Brighton won't stand for this.

Press

Here's a non-exhaustive list of the attention this has been getting in the local and national press.

Photo of Cllr Alison Thomson with leader of the council, Cllr Bella Sankey.

Alison Thomson isn't very active on twitter, but leader of the council Bella Sankey recently posted a photo of the two of them walking around Cllr Thomson's ward. Alt link to the tweet in case deleted

Screenshot of Cllr Alison Thomson's twitter profile, with the name 'Alsion Thomson #FBPE' and the bio 'Journalist and content creator. Labour councillor for Regency Ward, Brighton & Hove City Council. Mad about vizslas. Views my own'. Her twitter handle is @alleytee101.

A screenshot of her twitter profile. There is an archived version of this page.